Eclipsed Legacies- Lunar Chronicles One-shots

Birds Of A Feather

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The sun had reached the midway point, but the morning dew still shined on the garden grass. For an entire five years, Kai had thought that he had been blessed with calm and quiet children, but now the silence was a curse. So much for stopping to smell the roses.

Takumi, their five-year-old, accident-prone firstborn, had genetically received his mother's luck. The poor boy could be in mortal peril and still not make a sound loud enough to trigger anyone's attention, resulting in a lot of nightly jump scares when a small shadow creeps from out of the darkness asking for a cup of water.

And now, here Kai was, frantically searching for his child who had decided to silently wander away in the gardens. He needed to find him quickly before Cinder found out, again. Cinder somehow never lost the kids, and Kai swore it was another one of her superpowers. The first time Kai misplaced a child in the gardens, he panicked and immediately called out to Cinder who walked over to a tree and found the 3-year-old on her first try.

          Kai sighed, examining the closest tree, which was empty. "Takumi?"

         No response.

         Kai cupped his hands around his mouth and raised his voice a bit louder, "TAKUMI?"

          Kai stood in silence, barely hearing a small but greatly horrified scream, followed by the flapping of wings and the angry trills of birds before he finally spotted the small boy being chased by three garden sparrows just across the bridge.

            Laughing in relief, Kai ran across the bridge. The sparrows gave up on attacking their target as he neared.

            "I just told them they were pretty, and then they tried to kill me!" Takumi sobbed.

           Kai wiped a tear away, "Hey, they're just sparrows. They can peck, but it's nothing like a goose or macaw. Birds will either shy away or attack when they're disturbed."

          Takumi sniffed. "But dad, Pistachio doesn't do that."

          "I know," said Kai, picking a twig out of his son's hair, recalling the short feud between Takumi and his koi, "but Pistachio is a koi fish."

           "If he really is a fish, then why...Oh no." Takumi began frantically pointing at something behind them, "Dad? Dad!"

           Kai slowly turned around, already knowing what kind of creature could conjure a hiss and a scream at the same time. He had been in this same situation many years ago.

Kai had been chased by the geese in the gardens many times when he was younger, rarely having a father around to save him. It had scratched and bit him before he threw himself into a small koi pond as a last resort. Kai had thought his father would be terribly mad when he walked into his office soaked from head to toe, but his father had been embarrassingly amused and never let him live it down. But Kai cursed as a large goose began approaching them.

         "What does—"

          "It's not a word, Taku. You don't say it, and don't tell your mother about it." Kai slowly positioned the child behind him. "Don't move unless I say so."

          Takumi stiffened. "That's what mum told me after she said it yesterday."

           The goose honked and charged towards them, baring a beak full of teeth. "Run!"

           Takumi was running, but only as fast as his small legs could carry him. In one fast motion, the goose snatched a shoe from off of his foot. "DAD, PISTACHIO DOESN'T STEAL MY SHOES!"

          Kai began to run as well, picking up Takumi from his demise on his way to the palace doors. "That's because he is a fish!"

          "I don't believe you!" Takumi shouted, unable to accept that Pistachio was just a normal koi. The image of the goose reflected off of the silver doorknobs as they made it through the doors.

           Kai shut the door behind them, Taku's words of doubt echoing through the high-ceilinged room, silencing the crowd. Takumi sobbed again and wriggled himself out of Kai's arms, stumbling into his mother's embrace.

Kai crouched down to the floor, sighing with his head in his hands. He ignored the crowd as they began to lose their curiosity. At least he had found him before the goose had appeared.

"Dad saved me!" Kai dared himself to look up as Takumi sobbed in Cinder's arms. "He saved me, mum!"

"That's great." Cinder said with a pinched smile, making eye contact with Kai. "But I think your father forgot something rather important."

Kai's heart nearly skipped a beat before he laughed, "Oh! The goose took his shoe."

Cinder frowned, a spark of disbelief behind her eyes. "I'm talking about our daughter."

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